Catholic Advocacy Day Next Week
Delegates from dioceses around the state will gather in the Capitol next Tuesday, April 30, for this year’s Catholic Advocacy Day.
The congregation will be meeting with lawmakers to share the Catholic voice and lobby for life, children, and families.
For those that aren’t planning to attend, there are still ways you can make a difference. Click on the alerts below to quickly send a letter to your legislators so your voice is also counted. It takes only a moment and the impacts can be lasting and profound.
- Oppose Bill Targeting “Seal of Confession”
- Support Bill that Recognizes the Rights of Pregnant & Parenting Students
- Oppose the Bill that Requires Medicated Abortions on Campus
- Urge Lawmakers to Expand the CalEITC Program
- Urge California Lawmakers to Focus on Reducing Child Poverty
- Act Now to Help Prevent Youth Suicide
Please be in prayer for those traveling to Sacramento next week and for wisdom for our lawmakers. View backgrounders and other information on the day’s events on our Catholic Advocacy Day page.
Planned Parenthood Played Role in Forcing Abortion Coverage
A string of emails from a religious freedom case have detailed how Planned Parenthood urged California regulators to force religious employers to include abortions in their employees’ health insurance coverage even though the rule-makers did not seek or allow any other public comment.
In 2014, the Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) issued a rule that requires all employers, including faith-based, to pay for elective abortion coverage for employees. Normally, as required by the Administrative Procedures Act (APA), such a rule would be subject to public hearings and comments.
California Catholic Conference, the Guadulapanas Missionaries of the Holy Spirit, and the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) have been pursuing legal remedies ever since.
The emails are evidence in the ADF’s case.
“It’s no surprise that California politicians go overboard in promoting abortion ideology,” said Andrew Rivas, executive director of the California Catholic Conference, “but it is disturbing to see that California regulators work so closely with Planned Parenthood while simultaneously forestalling any opportunity to disagree with the wishes of the nation’s largest abortion provider.”
Human Dignity and Immigration Policy
Catholic leaders and immigration experts today insist that recognition and preservation of human dignity is essential to the crafting of effective and just immigration laws. A Catholic social thought understanding of migration recognizes both the natural right of humans to migrate in order to secure safety and a decent standard of living and the right and responsibility of a sovereign state to control movement across its borders so as to protect the common good. Put another way, the preservation of human dignity sits firmly in one scale balanced against the nation’s right and duty to control its borders. Denying the humanity of migrating people upends this equilibrium and risks producing unjust and immoral immigration policies that fail to protect the welfare and security of either Americans or migrants.
Saint Joseph Vaz, pray for Sri Lanka
The joy of Easter Sunday was brutally cut short for our Catholic sisters and brothers in Sri Lanka this year, as terrorist attacks killed hundreds and wounded hundreds more. Three Catholic churches and three hotels were attacked on the holiest day of the year, and the prayers of all Catholics around the world turned to the souls of those murdered and their grieving families.
Continue Reading at the AngelusNews.com
Bishops Urge All Must Be Included in Census Efforts
Bishop Frank Dewane, of Venice, Florida, Chairman of the USCCB Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development and Bishop Joe Vasquez, of Austin, Chairman of the Committee on Migration, issued the following statement in advance of the oral argument of Department of Commerce v. New York, before the United States Supreme Court regarding the importance of ensuring an accurate count for the U.S. Census.
“Our country conducts a Census every ten years to count the number of men, women and children residing in the United States. Census data helps direct more than $800 billion annually to key programs designed to advance the common good, strengthen families and reduce poverty. The Catholic Church and other service providers rely on the national Census to provide an accurate count in order to effectively serve those in need,” said Bishop Dewane.
April 26, 2019
Vol. 12, No. 13
En Español